Ten Years of Painting Agency!

What?  It's the tenth anniversary of my first post here?  How is this possible?  That's positively ancient in internet years.  To put it in perspective, in 2005 there was no Instagram, no Twitter, Facebook was for students only, and "Cool Mini or Not" was still my hobby website of choice.  I'd never painted a 15mm figure in my life, and this was my first work posted:

There have definitely been some changes over the years: fewer trivial WIPs and "look what I bought" posts, more comments and followers (thanks, guys!).  I got started painting smaller figures when I tried "Flames of War" WW2 models, and now I don't often paint 25/28 mm figures.  The 15 mm sci-fi renaissance has provided endless material that suits my new interests and time constraints.  On the downside, I think my technique has stagnated a fair bit from not being pushed, but I've also shifted my style to one which complements smaller sculpts.

Will I still be doing this in a few years?  I don't know, life goes on.  I certainly hope so, and right now I enjoy the synergy of painting/posting, and definitely appreciate all the feedback I get.

Danger Doctor

PPP Combat Medic
15 mm

The armed factions of human space place a high value on military medics, who are equipped with nanite injections, flesh plast, and organ stabilizers to treat wounds inflicted by numerous exotic weapons.  In keeping with the PPP's philosophy that enemy warfighters are themselves victims of their commanders' imperialist aggression, PPP medics are unarmed and will treat any wounded they encounter on the battlefield.

I sculpted some nice flippy hair on to the bald, male medic in the Planetary Militia command set to produce this now-female character.  I think it was a good idea, since honestly I felt "he" had a bit of a scrawny head originally.

"This is the third case of Arcturian space herpes I've seen today.  Honestly, guys!"

People's Protectors

PPP Home Guard
15 mm

The People's Planetary Partnership have the odd distinction of being the only sustainably functioning anarcho-socialist society in human history, existing across multiple star systems with a government based on group arbitration and consensus-building.  While no official apparatus exists to enforce ideological conformity, this governmental structure is sufficiently popular that dissenters generally find themselves facing social scorn and little cooperation from their fellow citizens.  Consequently, outsiders have variously described the PPP as "stodgy but egalitarian" and "numbingly conformist".

 

The PPP remain technologically inferior to their main stellar-political rivals the Cultural Collective, largely because of their refusal to create sentient artificial intelligences.  They maintain that "leashed" AI's constitute slavery while unrestricted ones represent an existential threat to humanity.  They loosely ally themselves with the photosynthetic Chloros, whose biological collectivism they admire.

The models here are The Ion Age's Planetary Militia and Hazelwurm Patrol Car.  I'm hoping to paint up a bunch more of these troops in the near future, they have a nice mid-tech look and the sculpts are easy to paint well.

Blades of Vengeance

Ghost Warrior
15 mm

This figure "Xin Youxia" was the Ion Age monthly giveaway for February.  I tried to diverge from the catalogue paint job and give her a distinctive look; I think I succeeded...

Dome Sweet Dome

Ion Age Geo Shelters
15 mm scale

Geo Shelters are the smaller of Ion Age's two basic building types, the other being the Hab Dome. I painted up two types, the laboratory (left) and the habitation (right).  More than just a high-tech tent, they still appear to be cramped temporary structures erected for military or exploration use.

Sgt. Barnes and his troopers discover what really happened to the exobiology team.

Stealthy Slayers

“When we’re on a mission, I keep count of how many ninja my father kills. He says not to keep count, only to pray for their souls. But if I don’t keep count, I don’t know how many souls to pray for. So I keep count. So far it’s three hundred and forty-two.”

 
Honestly, Rebel Miniatures' ninjas are not the best figures out there.   They have some weird proportions, giant hands and some oddly-placed lumpy bits, and some more weapon variety would be nice.  But "90% of success is showing up", and for under twelve bucks you get a big bag of them, so hey.

As usual, I don't have time to paint the whole horde...  I did a minor weapon swap on one of them, rope for spear.  I tried to position the lariat so he poses well with other figures:

Worked pretty well, I think!  Perhaps not so sturdy for gaming but it might make for some fun photos.

Marine Miscreants

Bennet's Buccaneers
15 mm

Well, they're done!  And the obligatory group shot:

Seagoing Scalawags

Bennet's Buccaneers
15 mm

My pirate crew got a bit derailed by Real Life as well as the fun hovercraft in my previous post, but I'm trying to get them finished here.  These are fun little figures with lots of character, but since they're individuals they do take a fair bit more work to paint than a uniform "squad" of soldiers.  Anyway there are four more to finish and hopefully I'll get those posted soon too... because I just ordered some brand spanking new Ion Age stuff that I'd love to paint up!  The eternal struggle...

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Speaking of the Ion Age, I've slowly been working on these Geo Shelters for a while.

 
So far they're just base coated and washed, but I like the look already, kind of grimy and industrial. They're kind of small for a factory installation etc., but would make good colony lab or workshop buildings, or a small military camp.  I have to say that, as with the Corbal Hardpoint, the airbrush was really helpful for laying down a nice even base colour on these, though I haven't even a novice's grasp of its more elaborate uses.

Amphibious Attack

Amphibious Assault Hovercraft
15 mm scale

I was a bit stalled on my pirates, and my sci-fi roots must have been showing, because I whipped this off in less than a week which is pretty speedy for me.  The hover is of course an Ion Age "Adder Combat Lifter" missile pod variant I've had kicking around for a while.  A nice model; it has its own style but you could use it for a lot of different factions without it looking out of place.

 
The riders are Clear Horizons' Hell Divers, which were the only seated figures I had, but turned out looking perfect.  I painted them to look very "Star Wars clone trooper", without actually intending to.  I just wanted to distinguish them from my other squad and not be green.  I picture this vehicle doing high-speed shore assaults, rapidly disembarking a team of infantry and then falling back to support them with missile strikes.

Yo ho ho!

Oh the year was 1778
How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now!
A Letter of Marque came from the King
to the scummiest vessel I've ever seen
God damn them all!

I got a couple of sets of these great little pirate figures from Rebel Miniatures back in January.  They're so much fun!  I guess I needed a break from so many "sci-fi space trooper guys".. or maybe my daughter's frequent viewings of "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" are getting to me ;)  I picked up a pack of 24 male pirates, and one with a few women for diversity's sake.  I love that in 15 mm, that was for the cost of like, one Space Marine.

(Dave Graffam Models has some downloadable paper scenery that'd go perfectly with these guys.  Might need to shell out a few more bucks for a suitable photo setup.)

2015: Heavies and Stealth Agent

Puritan Power Armour

15 mm scale

I got these Puritan superheavy troops from Khurasan last year, and just decided to paint a couple up as post-holiday slump-buster.  I don't know what, if any, fluff to assign them yet so I held off on markings etc.  They seem like they'd be nice Neo Soviet/sci-fi-communist elite troops of some kind (especially painted red like this).

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Splinter Assassin

15 mm

The first figure from my latest Rebel Miniatures order (a solid handful of 15 mm pirates and ninjas remain untouched as yet).  This guy is obviously "inspired" by the protagonist of the Splinter Cell video games and his not-very-stealthy green head lamps.  A very nice little sculpt!

Basic bitz box basing...

Rock and Roll all (Christmas) Night

Gingerbread KISS Pinball Machine

Every Christmas season, I try and produce a fun and novel gingerbread creation and post it here.  Longtime readers may remember my avant-garde church, windmill, or light-up lighthouse.  This time, I was non-architecturally inspired by the 1978 KISS pinball arcade machine.

Side panel portraits of the band; almost recognizeable as human.

Four player scoreboard with logo.

For reference, the original item.

So, happy holidays everyone!

Corbal Hardpoint... On The Move!

Corbal Mobile Hardpoint
15mm scale

Well, it's done!  This is definitely the biggest project I've done in ages, and although it proceeded painfully slowly at times I have to say I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I went with a white/colour accent scheme because I rather liked the white/red studio paint job on the Ion Age website, and frankly, because it's not too hard to paint a lot of white this way.  Also, I think camouflaging something like a four-storey-tall walking gun tower would be kind of pointless, especially if you want to use it as a "terror weapon".

(Now that I look at it all finished up it does have more than a passing resemblance to a giant walking Dalek... but that's not really a bad thing.)

"Run away!  Run away!"

"Here's the problem, big guy.  You've got some humanoid stuck to your foot."

Hardpoint, in Progress

Honestly, I haven't abandoned this project:

Sprayed white, then washed with grey until it looked totally dirty and horrible... now I'm bringing the features out with white again.  Not the most exciting painting work, but it's coming along okay.

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As a side note, I see the Ion Age are releasing some cool connectors/tunnels to link together all their sci-fi colony hab structures:

Looks pretty amazing, not to mention versatile!  More details in their blog post here.

Don't Get Me Busted

Female Bounty Hunters
15 mm

Donna A, Donna C, Donna F, Donna R, and Donna S are a team of bounty hunters whose outfits are as "skintight" as their game!

As "teenage runaways" desperate to get out of the stagnant agricultural colony of Nova NorCal, they teamed up to buy a ship and some weapons and hung out their shingle as fugitive trackers and private security consultants.  Now they and their pet Speed Demon are "hungry for blood" and headed to wherever they can find some well-paying "party action".  More than one criminal has ended up "all messed up" and flying back to face a "police blitz" after underestimating their tracking and combat abilities...

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Maintenance Droid
15mm

An essential item on any space station or ship, this intelligent droid can fix and maintain most systems.  Its repulsor system allows it to hover and access any part of the ship, as well as maneuver outside the hull using reaction jets.  Although all droids leave the factory with the same pleasantly neutral personality, it's widely believed that those working on older ships in poor shape tend to become "grumpy" over time.

An Ion Age miniature from the "Duxis drone and pilot" set.

Sneak peek

Female Bounty Hunter in Ghost Suit
15 mm
 

One of the Khurasan female bounty hunters I'm working on.  Not much else done on them to be honest, but I liked how the OSL looked on this one so I thought I'd post it...

Khurasan Femmes Fatales

I agreed to paint some more pre-release Khurasan minis, this time a team of female sci-fi bounty hunters:

Some nice variety here: a few fully-armoured hardasses, a couple of helmetless characters, one hoody-wearing rogue-type and a um, "dog thing".  I'll admit to being a biased source, but these are definitely more of the super-fine-featured 15 mm sculpts that Khurasan is becoming known for.  A real challenge for anyone who thinks they have a steady painting hand!  Hopefully I can get them done toute suite so you can get a better look at them.

Shady Characters

Sci-Fi Rogues
15 mm

The female mini was The Ion Age's monthly giveaway for July.  Nice sculpt, it would be pretty static but the sideways look gives it "direction" (yeah, I think about these things).  And I like the tough girl pose and the big gun :)  I picked a 70's-esque brown and orange pallette just to get away from the clean white armour on the catalog paint job.  The male figure is from The Ion Age's "The Betrayers", a nice assortment of scruffy brigands.  His hand was mis-molded and I broke his leg off un-basing him, so some green stuff was badly needed...

"I don't think I've seen one that big before! Just keep shooting!"